Hick ensures there is honey still for tea

There was something reassuringly familiar about events at New Road yesterday. The cathedral bells rang out, the Ladies' Pavilion overflowed with tea and cake, and Graeme Hick scored a century. It was his first of the season but his 120th in all for Worcestershire, who duly overwhelmed Kent with time to spare.

Tall, upright, booming - on days like this, Hick simply owns the place.

Hick turned 37 on Friday, but he remains youthfully insatiable, and on the same two-paced pitch where 40 wickets had fallen for just 663 runs in the championship match against Gloucestershire, he timed his innings to perfection. Driving with sadistic power, he hammered 10 fours in a 35-ball fifty while the field was still in, then took it easy once it had spread.

Taking it easy is, of course, a relative term when Hick is in this kind of mood, and there was a glorious straight six off Peter Trego among the nurdles to third man. The century arrived with a delicate nibble for four off Greg Blewett from his 100th ball - and the ground rose.

Unlike Vikram Solanki and Kabir Ali, who both had quietish games ahead of their potential inclusion in England's one-day squad on Thursday, Hick's international days are a thing of the past. You suspect the locals don't really mind.

He eventually popped up a catch to Mark Ealham at square-leg off Michael Carberry's amiable off-spin - so amiable that it had never before been used in one-day cricket - but his 108 had set Worcestershire on the way to a formidable total.

Stephen Peters had already helped him out in a second-wicket stand of 127 in 22 overs, before Ben Smith - wielding a scalpel to Hick's cudgel - scampered a sprightly fifty.

Andrew Hall then celebrated his call-up by South Africa for this summer's NatWest Series with a merciless 47 in 27 balls, including four fours and three easy-as-you-like leg-side sixes.

Needing to score at a run a ball, Kent's spitfires came crashing to earth in flames. The metronomic Matt Mason removed both openers, Ed Smith went back to one that stayed low, and from 101 for three, the innings went into freefall.

Two men ran themselves out and David Leatherdale, another New Road institution, scuttled in deceptively to help himself to five wickets. The last seven fell for just 31 to condemn Kent to their fourth league defeat in five games.

The only moment of light relief in a grizzly collapse came when Alamgir Sheriyar, the left-arm seamer who left Worcestershire at the end of last season, walked out to bat.

Sheriyar's seven overs had cost 59 on his one-day debut for Kent, and now the crowd half-clapped, half-laughed as they welcomed him back. They could afford the generosity. When Hick scores a hundred, New Road feels good about itself.